This study aims to assess the efficacy and safety of time-limited, brief, dynamic psychotherapy (BDP) as a treatment to prevent stress disorders in persons who suffer distress after events such as death, injury, or exposure to violence. Periodic collection of data from a large population comprised of volunteers from a major corporation provides information about these persons before they experience the events. This prospective design permits examination of subgroups within the population who have had serious life events, as well as those who have and do or do not develop distress. Those who develop distress will be randomly assigned into Usual Community Care (UCC) or Experimental treatment (Brief Dynamic Psychotherapy, BDP). The groups, especially the BDP and UCC groups, are then compared for ensuing years in order to appraise their symptoms, social functioning, and quality of life. We predict that BDP will be shown to be a safe, effective, and inexpensive way of preventing chronic stress disorders.